I am sure they are enough Stefan. If you allow a pictorial metaphor, its like the Third Noble Truth opens out into Eightfold Path, and from another angle into the Brahma Viharas. In turn the Paramis overlap with the Brahma Viharas, no's eight and nine ( ? ) of the paramis are not different from two of the Brahma Viharas. They are I think different aspects of the same thing with a slightly different emphasis here and there . So yes , they give all of philosophical underpinning that we need to inform our anapanasati and Brahma Vihara practice.

I mean, as beneficial as the various practices are, are all of them indispensable? The Fouth Truth states only the NEP as the means for attaining Nibbana, it doesn't mention other practices. Yet the Blessed One taught many other practices; are these indespensable?

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Nelson Mandela

My philosophy is simple: saying 'yes' to the positive and 'no' to the negative.

"They are so important in the practice of Vipassana meditation that they are included in the second step of the Noble Eightfold Path. In fact, no concentration is possible without these sublime states of mind because in their absence the mind would be filled with hatred, rigidity, worry, fear, tension and restlessness."Article here:http://www.bhavanasociety.org/main/reso ... ess_metta/

mettaChris

---The trouble is that you think you have time------Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe------It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---

This offering maybe right, or wrong, but it is one, the other, both, or neither!Blog,-Some Suttas Translated,Ajahn Chah."Others will misconstrue reality due to their personal perspectives, doggedly holding onto and not easily discarding them; We shall not misconstrue reality due to our own personal perspectives, nor doggedly holding onto them, but will discard them easily. This effacement shall be done."

pink_trike wrote:Imo, the whole thing is right there in the FNT and 8FP. Everything else is additional commentary and aids to recognizing what is clearly spelled out in the FNT and 8FP.

The FNT and 8FP are profoundly simple...but they are also deep and alive. The more we take them to heart the more they reveal, ultimately revealing all.

As Chris pointed out, just because brahma-viharas (and other teachings for that matter) are not explicitly referenced in 4NT or 8NP, they are certainly part of it.

Metta,Retro.

If you have asked me of the origination of unease, then I shall explain it to you in accordance with my understanding: Whatever various forms of unease there are in the world, They originate founded in encumbering accumulation. (Pārāyanavagga)

Exalted in mind, just open and clearly aware, the recluse trained in the ways of the sages:One who is such, calmed and ever mindful, He has no sorrows! -- Udana IV, 7

"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta